New owners of Canon Speedlites are often bewildered about how to use the flash unit effectively to produce the type of shots they want. Although the supplied manual does provide some technical assistance, Speedlites have been, and remain a mystery for many owners. This DVD sets out to change all that. With a running time of just over a hour, your host, professional photographer Tim Mantoani, takes the mystery out of these flashes and shows you how to use them to their best advantage. Whether you own one or several of these speedlites, Tim walks you through real world situations that can be made better with repeatable techniques. He not only tells you HOW the flash operates, butWHY the engineers designed the flashes with their current set of features. You've spent a lot of time and resources getting great camera equipment and learning how to use you camera effectively. This DVD will take you to the next level by allowing you to add light where you want it. Photography is all about communication. With a little information and one of these great speedlites, you can evoke exactly the response you want. These words appear on the back of the DVD: The new EX series of speedlites from Canon can be the most powerful accessory in your camera bag. Understanding how the controls work is important and this DVD takes you through their operation, step by step. Your host, professional photographer Tim Mantoani, demonstrates these flash units in a serie sCustomer Review: Handy Guide
A great companion to the canon speedlight instruction book. It does not over the 580 EX II specifically, but there is plenty of information to give you the basics and then some if you are learning the Canon speedlight system for the first time.
Customer Review: Canon flash - moderately helpful/studio oriented
This video was moderately helpful to me. There seems to be a limited availability of instructional material out there on this product from what I was able to find so, some help is better than none. The video does focus on portait style photography. If you are interested in learning about how to shoot childrens parties, weddings or events, you will be disappointed in the very limited information on that subject. If you are interested in studio portraits and studio macro photography you will get some good information. This video left me wanting more specific instruction on the operation and application of the 580ex outside the studio setting. Overall, if you are willing to pay $20 for a few good nuggets, it's worth it.
Music has always been the universal language, and recently, it has developed into a universal means of entertainment. Everything from the PC to dedicated MP3 players and even mobile phones and PDAs are made with music-playing capabilities. For people who listen to music a lot, here are some nifty new gadgets.
1. Sennheiser MX 1 High End Wireless Buds - the MX W1 is the first wireless set of earphones to boast of high fidelity audio without the need for bulky and unnecessary docking stations. It is also advertised as 10X more efficient than bluetooth and weighs only ten grams, with an average of 12 hours of play for a single charge. This can be a great gadget for people who are tired of messy, tangled wires.
2. Chinavasion's Casette Mp3 Player -this nifty new mp3 player looks exactly like a cassette player, but has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a usb 2.0 and a car cigarette power adapter. The absence of internal memory means you need a 2GB SD or MMC card to put your music files in. It works as a standalone mp3 player or can be used like a normal cassette in any cassette player.
3. Maxwell's VRSP-4000 iPod docking station - the VRSP-4000 differs from other iPod docking stations because it makes your iPod look like a classic boombox while it is charging. The classy style is not all for show, though, since Maxwell's "bit-revolution technology" will enhance the sound and recover details lost during mp3 compression. The VRSP-4000 comes with two 18watts speaker and an FM tuner.
Alan Mc Donald is a webmaster and a gadget addict always looking for new toys to play with, he recommends Gadget Mania for all your gadgets needs.
Cannon Cameras